Old (34y) JRPG gamer here. Played a ton of JRPGs on SNES and PS1 era, my favorites for JRPGs. FF was always my favorite series but lost interest in it after FFX (one of the best!).
During the SNES/PS1 era I always wanted to play DQ. It amazed me how japanese love this game that transcends generations, since those crazy people that forbid square of releasing it on a normal week day during early 90's still play the game. It seems to have a steady 4-5 million units sold each game released in Japan.
Tried to play it several times, speacially DQ6 and DQ7, but never got used to the FPS battle screen. Thought it was dull and uneteresting so I never past the first 2 hours in it. Somehow, dont know why, never played DQ8 which fixed my biggest complain which was the FPS battle view. But in the last 6 months I decided to go to work by train which gave some time to play handheld games and decided to give DQIX a chance.
WOW, what a blast! It is so simple, yet so great. Very charming caracters, a very charming story, good vs evil, blablabla, but still touching. A very simple battle system, yet very cool to play. The game is VERY old school, very atached to its roots, never trying to be over the top. But it was SO FUN. Loved the game, took me 45 hourz to beat, now I already bought a used DQ8 for PS2 and I'm eagerly waiting for a NA release of the DQ7 3DS remake.
Which brings me to FF. Always trying to be more complex, more cinematic, more over the top, more everything. And it became less fun, less touching, less... japanese...
Kudos for Square for allowing the DQ team to respect its roots, its traditions. Yep, it was the best proof for me that FF just got it all wrong.
